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Podcast

#960: Why Secretary McMahon shouldn’t waive federal testing requirements, with Charles Barone

Charles Barone Michael J. Petrilli Amber M. Northern, Ph.D. David Griffith, Ph.D.
3.12.2025
 

On this week’s Education Gadfly Show podcast, Charles Barone, Senior Director of the Center for Innovation at the National Parents Union, joins Mike and David to discuss the future of federal assessment and accountability policies under the Trump Administration. Then, on the Research Minute, Amber examines a study on student loan forgiveness and its impact on work, earnings, and borrowing.

Recommended content:

  • Charles Barone, “The Future of Assessment and Accountability | Part 1 | Goodbye Federal Assessment Guardrails?,” National Parents Union  (2025).
  • Dale Chu, “Are states ready to lead on education? Could Trump’s policies set them up to fail?,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (March 6, 2025).
  • Victoria McDougald, “The case for standardized testing,” Thomas B. Fordham Institute (August 1, 2025).
  • Michael Dinerstein, Samuel Earnest, Dmitri K. Koustas and Constantine Yannelis, Student Loan Forgiveness, NBER (February 2025)

Feedback Welcome: Have ideas for improving our podcast? Send them to Stephanie Distler at [email protected].

Policy Priority:
Standards & Accountability
Topics:
Accountability & Testing

Charles Barone, Ph.D., is the Senior Director of the Center for Innovation at the National Parents Union.

President, Thomas B. Fordham Institute

Michael J. Petrilli is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, executive editor of Education Next, editor in chief of the Education Gadfly Weekly, host of the…

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Amber Northern is senior vice president for research at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where she supervises the Institute’s robust research portfolio and…

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David Griffith is the National Research Director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, where he manages or authors reports on various subjects including charter schools, …

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